St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-15
0H777'='~740
COIETOIrSNESS

reformerS Of the day, who are invoking
the aid of state and national legislation
To help them out i'll enforcing the ten
commandments, should be so diScrimi-
mating III regard to the commandments
that are TO lie obeyed. 1t seems never
10 have occurred to them that the CON-
mandment which prohibits covetous-
ness has as much binding force as the
others. When MOSES published the
dccalogue he evidently had an idea that
1t was complete code in itself. BY the
time the reformcrS of this generation
get through amending it and curing its
defects by supplemental legislation,
MOSES himself wouldn't recognize the
decalogue. The world is good deal
bigger and older than it was in MOSES
time, and a great deal faster. Its prog
reSS in age and development has proba-
bly, brought a great many vices into
existence which even SATAN hadn't
thought of i'll the days when the ten COM
mandments were written. This is proba-
bly, the reason why modern reformers
think they are justified in improving on
the primitive ideas on morality which
prevailed at the time MOSES was the
worlds law-giver and AARON the judi
cial interpreter. However many reasons
exist for moral innovations. there is no
reason why any one of the ten COM
mandments should become obsolete.
The decalogue is something that may he
added to, but cannot be taken away
from. Its integrity is indestructible.
+ %
prise that with all the efforts that are
being made to regulate the morals of the
people by Legislative enactments, it has
never occurred to the reformerS to Sc
cure an enforcement of the prohibitory
clause against cOvetouSneSS, Thou
shalt not covct' was written as plainly
on the tablet of stone as any of the
other nine commandments. Notwith-
standing this fact it is lamentable
that the majority of determinations
which are being pressed upon
public attention these days origi-
nate in a spirit of covetOusness.
One individual sees another prospecting
in Il particular line of business. He
coyets his neighbours prosperity, and
because his circumstances are such that
he cannot eclipse or even rival him, he
concludes that the best thing for him to
do is to reform his neighbor out of bus
mess. With all the evil in the world,
there is no denial that c0vetouSneSS is
the worst vice of all. 1t is the worst be-
cause it covers Il larger area in the hui
man heart than all others. With the av-
erage individual it permeates every
crevice and touches cvere fibre of the
heart. 1t is, iii fact, the handspring
of human action. We see its develop
ment in the selfiSlmesS of this world.
The gross materialiSm of the age is
founded on coyetOusncSs. The desire
to possess something that is in the pos
session of somebody else is the motive
power which is driving us along at
the break-neck-t0-tli e-devil speed with
which industrial life is moving. The
chief aim of every mans life is to hog the
persimmon. GraSping ,piling up, boarding
away is the work of the successful ones.
Pulling down and destroying that which
the successful ones have boarded away
is the work of the unsuccessful ones.
And yet both are actuated by that same
spirit Of coVetOuSneSS. 1t is singular,
we repeat, that it has never occurred to
the reformers of the day that the worlds
morals will never be successfully regu-
lated until this one commandment,
Thou shalt not coyet." is equally ell
forced with the other Zine.